Mother Feared For Child's Safety, Records Show

Tony Moreno admitted to throwing his 7-month-old son Aaden off the Arrigoni Bridge in Middletown and then jumping himself. The boy died but the 22-year-old Moreno survived. He's being charged with murder.

MIDDLETOWN — State officials and victims' advocates say they want answers to why a judge did not issue a restraining order in June against the father of a baby for whom police have been searching the Connecticut River since Sunday night.

Adrianne Oyola applied for a restraining order June 17 against boyfriend Tony Moreno. Police fear Moreno may have thrown 7-month-old Aaden Moreno from the Arrigoni Bridge before he jumped. Moreno, who was hospitalized, has not been charged.

A judge in Middletown granted a temporary restraining order but another judge, Barry C. Pinkus, denied a permanent order after a June 29 hearing. It was still unclear Tuesday why he did not keep the restraining order in place.

"The events that led up to this tragedy are not unusual for many victims of domestic violence across Connecticut," said Karen Jarmoc, president and CEO of CT Coalition Against Domestic Violence. "From what we have learned so far about the application for a restraining order by Aaden's mother, this is not the first incident of an order being denied where we have felt that there was clear merit."

Tony Moreno

Shawn R. Beals

Tony Moreno as a sophomore at Middletown High School.

Tony Moreno as a sophomore at Middletown High School.

(Shawn R. Beals)

Police said they have confirmed "that the seven month old, listed as missing, did enter the Connecticut River."

Crews were still searching for the baby Tuesday afternoon in what police are calling a recovery effort. The search was expected to continue until dark before resuming tomorrow morning. Middletown police were receiving assistance from the Middletown fire department, the South District fire department, the Department of Emergency and Environmental Protection, Homeland Security, state police and the Hartford, East Hartford, West Hartford, Glastonbury, Rocky Hill and South Windsor police departments.

State Sen. Dante Bartolomeo of Meriden said she has been in contact with the state Department of Children and Families, the Connecticut Coalition Against Domestic Violence and the city of Middletown in the case.

"It looks to me as though we need to better understand what the judicial system knew and why there wasn't a permanent restraining order issued," Bartolomeo said. "(Oyola) appears to have provided enough information for the judge to grant a permanent protective order. The fact that didn't happen appears to me to be a horrendous failure of the system."

A message left with Pinkus at the Middletown courthouse Tuesday was not immediately returned. Rhonda Stearley-Hebert, a spokeswoman for the Judicial Department, declined to comment.

Oyola wrote in the restraining order application that she feared for her child's and her own safety. Oyola wrote in the application that she and Moreno were happy until she became pregnant, but he began to verbally abuse, threaten and push her.

"He has told me he could make my son disappear any time of the day," she wrote. "He told me how he could make me disappear told me how he could kill me. I sometimes am scared to sleep. He told me he would put me in the ground and put something on me to make me disintegrate faster."

"I can't bring [the baby] around my family without [Moreno's] approval, but he could do anything he wants without letting me know," she wrote. "I feel that he is a danger to my child and me and would like to leave with my child and get full custody."

Court records indicate there is an open child custody case involving Moreno and Oyola.

Moreno's family had called police about 11:45 p.m. on Sunday to say that he was threatening to commit suicide and that he had the baby with him, said police spokeswoman Lt. Heather Desmond.

Moreno survived the 120-foot fall from the bridge into the Connecticut River and was in stable condition at Hartford Hospital Monday afternoon. He was unable to talk to police Monday morning, but by the afternoon was "alert and conscious," police said.

It's not clear if DCF was involved with the family. Spokesman Gary Kleeblatt said the agency would not comment on the case because child protection records cannot be disclosed under state law.

Bartolomeo said the legislature's committee on children, which she is the chairwoman of, introduced a bill in the recent session that establishes a task force to review policies, procedures and training of police departments, state agencies and the judicial branch.

"This tragedy was preventable and I am again calling for increased training requirements for all judges and court personnel who work with victims of domestic violence," said State Sen. Mae Flexer. "For years I have been working to increase training requirements for judges and any such requirements have been met with great resistance by the Judicial Branch. Failure to protect this baby when the signs were so clear is unacceptable."

A neighbor at the Middletown home where Moreno and Oyola lived said family members are unable to make any public statements about the case.

Two police officers who arrived on the bridge after the initial call saw Moreno jump, but did not see the baby with him, Middletown police said in a statement. But sources said witnesses told police they saw a man on the bridge holding a baby over his head.

Emergency crews searched the river throughout the morning Monday while investigators interviewed Moreno's family members and friends to determine whether someone else may have been watching the baby, police said. It was Moreno's scheduled night to have Aaden, Desmond said.

On Tuesday, searchers used kayaks and larger boats, jet skis and a wakeboard. Members of at least three different dive teams were searching under water, and a cadaver dog was on the shore trying to detect the baby's scent off the water.

Three fire departments, two police agencies and the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection all were involved in the investigation on Monday. State and federal agencies searched the river using helicopters.

In a short statement to reporters gathered at Harbor Park Monday afternoon, Desmond said the search for Aaden had shifted from a rescue effort to a recovery operation.

Middletown Mayor Daniel Drew said that the police department is working with the Middlesex state's attorney on the investigation and that the department expects to file charges in the case soon.

"Right now our main priority is recovering Aaden and doing everything we can to return him to his family," Drew said. "This is a horrible tragedy. For Aaden to have had his whole life and whole future stolen from him is a tragedy that is almost impossible to put into words. I hope everybody keeps this little boy in their hearts and minds and prayers."

Later Monday night, two family friends organized a prayer vigil for Aaden in Middletown.

Taylor McPherson of Cromwell, who said she is a friend of the Moreno family, said she decided with her friend Diane Bennett to hold the vigil. A few dozen people gathered on the city's South Green at Main and Union streets for prayers and candle-lighting.

"We're showing the family they have the support of the whole community behind them," McPherson said.

Bennett was tying pieces of yarn around the wrists of people who attended the vigil, asking them to wear the simple bracelet until Aaden is found.

"The town needed this," Bennett said. "I know many people were probably home crying today, so we needed somewhere to come and cry as a community. I don't know the family but I know this town."